Mass Effect: Sibling Sidekick
by A Table God Named Cheese
Summary: 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard reluctantly agrees to transfer from her mother's ship to that of her brother, Commander John Shepard. But once she does so a chain of events happen that will transform her from just a simple soldier into a legend. Rated T just in case. BEING REVISED
1. O Brother, Where Are Thou?

"Stop stalling Jane. We both know you want to come aboard the Normandy."

"Like hell I do!"

"Why not!? Do you not realize what you're passing up?"

"You're gonna be on board, right? Last time I checked, you were...how to put this nicely? A jackass."

"And you're a saint? Just say yes already and meet me at the Citadel. It'd be good for us to spend some more quality time together."

" _Pfft!_ We spent enough 'quality' time together aboard ships before you went off to basic training. And even then you were a douche."

"And you love me for it, right? Seriously, come aboard and I'll...I'll bake you a cake or something. You like cake, don't you?"

"...That's the best you can do?"

"That's the best you'll get, now come on!"

"Dammit! Be glad Mom already came to me with this little request of yours, or this would've been a short conversation."

"Is that a yes?"

"Yes, John, I'll transfer from the Kilimanjaro to the Normandy. I'll meet you at the Citadel a week from now."

"Good, see you then. And Jane?"

"What?"

"Love you."

"I know you do."

* * *

That conversation with John was a week ago, so now Jane found herself on the Citadel searching for that no-good big brother of hers. He wasn't all bad, most of the time. He was pretty respectful to anyone who served with him. Hell, Jane herself was simply going off the fact that he could be a humongous dick to anyone he didn't know, and a mild nuisance to those he did know. She knew he was a good guy at heart, but she liked to bust his balls about his attitude every now and then. He'd counter that her personality was barely better than his, to which she'd laugh and politely tell him to shut the hell up.

But on to the more important things. She had forgotten to ask John exactly where he had wanted to meet her, so she ended up shuffling from place to place for about an hour. With all of the diverse amount of things around here, she could give him some time to pop up or get in contact with her. Yeah, that sounded like something that she could do. Besides, she was sure that they would bump into each other sooner or later. And if that was the case, then it looked like needed to figure out where to go first.

Unfortunately, she had no clue on where to start. There were so many places, and she didn't really have the luxury of coming to the Citadel often enough to familiarize herself with the place. After a few minutes of thinking, she concluded that it would probably do her some good to go to the human embassies office. Not only to see if John had passed through, but to see Captain Anderson. Maybe she'd find him bickering with Ambassador Udina again. She felt sorry for him, not only for seemingly always arguing with Udina, but for being stuck on a ship with John of all people. Not like he didn't mind though; he was a close family friend and had known the two since they were little toddlers. And from what she had heard, John had been doing pretty well under his command, though that could've been attributed to the fact that he was a freakin' Commander.

Hopefully she'd get some answers here. If John had arrived yet, where were the nearest markets, was there a pool nearby, stuff like that. Because if he wasn't here, then she would have some free time on her hands. Which sounded nice, but whenever Jane had free time on her hands she could never seem to figure out what to do with it. She entered the human embassy where Captain Anderson and Ambassador Udina were, in fact, bickering. About what, she didn't care, but she knew she'd have to break this up before someone got shot. By her.

"Easy, boys! I'm sure 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard here can ease the tension in the room." She said cheerfully. While Anderson seemed at least happy to see her, Udina simply seemed pissed. But then again, when didn't he?

"Shepard, what business do you have here?" Udina asked her. "Aren't you suppose to be aboard the Normandy by now?"

"Which is why I'm here...for _him_." She responded, pointing at Anderson. "Evening Anderson, have you seen John around?"

"Nice to see you too, Jane." He replied. "And I him on his way to find a Turian C-Sec officer named Garrus."

"Turian named Garrus huh? Know where I can find him?"

"Me and Udina sent him off into Chora's Den to find another C-Sec officer named Harkin. He should know where Garrus is and, with any luck, you'll find him down there. But be careful Shepard. He's a no-good drunk and an amateur womanizer, so be prepared for some tacky pick-up lines."

"Don't worry Captain, I know how to handle those type of guys. I'll be fine."

After the nice talk with Anderson, and stares from Udina that could only be described as perverse, Jane eventually found herself in front of Harkin, the only guy there who seemed way too excited about her arrival. Then again, she was right in front of him, and he was supposed to be a disgusting pervy man. "I'm guessing you must be Harkin, right?

"Now what's this?" Harkin said, his face overflowing with intrigue. If he thought he was gonna in anyway benefit from this confrontation, he was damn sure gonna try his hardest. "Hey there princess, what brings you here?"

"Princess, huh?" Jane responded. "Tell you what, you tell me where I can find Garrus, and _maybe_ I won't shoot your nuts off."

"Feisty one, I like feisty ones." He'd say. Jane glared at him, but he didn't back down. "I take it you're with that guy who came in earlier, right? Navy guy, with the N7 armor on?"

"No. Now, Garrus is where exactly?"

"Oh come on. You don't need to worry your pretty little head about-"

"Listen hear." She interrupted, slowly reaching for her pistol. "If anyone should be worrying, it's you. I'm a great aim, and you're about to get first-hand experience. Garrus, where is he?"

"Alright, calm down!" He said, holding his hands up in defeat. "He's up at the Med Bay, you can find him there."

"See, was that so hard? Next time, tell me what I want to hear and I won't have to threaten to shoot you."

"Bitch."

"Dick."

* * *

After dealing with Harkin, Jane made her way to the Med Clinic in order to have a word with the doctor there, and hopefully find her brother and/or Garrus in the process. Once she arrived however, she was greeted by the sight of dead bodies, which did nothing but cause her to sigh. Really? Dead bodies? This could be a coincidence...but it could also mean that John had already been through here.

Well, best talk to the obviously shaken doctor so that she'd know where to go next.

"Hey, Doctor?" She began. "I'm 1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard. I'm pretty sure you saw my brother come in here, right? Oh, about six feet something inches tall, wore N7 armor, probably looked like a robot with an artificial face. Any of those ring a bell?"

"Yes, he was here not too long ago." The doctor responded. "He and Garrus helped get me out of a...sticky situation. He also had two others with him who seemed to be Alliance."

"Alright, so can you tell me where they went from here?"

"They went to C-Sec Headquarters to talk to a krogan named Wrex, and afterwards they were going down to Chora's Den to confront Fist. He's the man who sent the men you saw on your way in."

"Thanks Doc." She said before bolting out of the clinic. She began to plan on meeting John back at Chora's Den, since she was sure that if she were to follow him all the way to C-Sec HQ, he'd be gone. Which also begged her to ask the question: Why in the world was he meeting with a krogan in the first place? She didn't want to think of any negative outcomes, but knowing her brother she was concerned that he might get himself pummeled. Or killed, either one was a terrible outcome. She made her way through the upper markets, and was tempted to shop for new things, but resisted the urge. She was also intrigued about the conversation between the turian store-owner and an angry human customer, but knew she had more important things to do than listen to some guy whine for his money back. No matter how funny it seemed to be.

So she attempted to make her way down to the lower markets, emphasis on the word 'attempted'. She had gotten stopped on the way by some guy, and he didn't seem to want to let her get away from him so easily. Why did all the weird guys always seem to want to talk to her? There were other people around, dammit!

"Excuse me, but you're the younger sister of Commander Shepard aren't you?" The man would ask.

Irritated, Jane simply nodded. It was the only thing she could do, because if she opened her mouth then someone was going to go home crying.

"That's great! I'm Conrad Verner, his biggest fan. I was wondering if you could get him to, maybe, sign an autograph for me?"

...Really? The dick-face had a fan? She was much more talented, beautiful, and overall better than he was, and she didn't have any fans! Not even one lousy weird-looking-krogan-toe-licking reject named Conrad Verner!

"Um...I suppose I could get him to at least come and visit you." Jane would tell him. "But Conrad, seriously, wouldn't you rather have _my_ autograph?"

"No offense miss, but you aren't as famous as Commander Shepard is. He's a hero, an icon, a role model to kids and adults everywhere! And you...you're his little sister."

Ouch. That was...very painful to hear. At least, to Jane it was anyway. So some random nobody wanted big bro John's autograph because he saved Elysium and got some damn medals. Well hel-lo! Lone survivor of Akuze here! At least take pity on a poor soul and take her autograph!

It was official, she was now upset...

Which then led to her opening her mouth.

"Really? _Really!?_ You listen here pal, you're lucky I'm on a mission or you'd be picking your teeth up from the ground!" She shouted before stomping off. Just who in the hell did he think he was, saying she was a nobody like that? She nearly turned around to give him a beating, but she wasn't actively trying to attract any unnecessary attention. Not now anyway.

So she continued on through the lower markets and before she could even take a few steps towards Chora's Den, shots began to ring out. All of the store-owners simply ducked, but she now found herself hiding behind a wall as if a stray bullet wouldn't just find its' way to her. Well, she wasn't exactly wearing any armor at the moment, and with only her pistol she was pretty vulnerable. As a matter of fact, she wasn't wearing any armor at all. Having on a hoodie, a black t-shirt and some blue jeans didn't qualify as armor for any species.

This just meant that John was already inside of Chora's Den, and he wasn't alone. Well, that much was obvious, there were people there not too long ago, but with all this gunfire going on she doubted anyone with a conscience would do anything but run or duck. But she had to get in there...she just didn't have the armor or firepower to do so right now. So the only thing she could do was wait for everything to settle down so she could calmly walk inside the club and meet up with John.

Or!

She could just go in guns blazing and hope for the best! Yeah, that sounded much more exciting than just sitting around waiting for someone else to do something you knew you could do on your own! Especially when it was _John_. She slowly approached the door leading into the club and peeked her head inside to get a better view of the situation. And wouldn't you know it, more dead bodies! From the back room two guys had appeared, but they seemed unarmed. Better safe than sorry, so she pointed her pistol at the two and slowly made her way towards them. Unfortunately for them, seeing some redhead with a gun startled them into fumbling for their own guns, which ended with bullet-holes in their faces. She continued onward and heard some chatter coming from farther back in the room, though she was unsure if John was one of the voices. It was only when she was nearing the voices that she heard John speak, seemingly angry at someone for shooting Fist. And now, close enough to make out three individual voices, she felt it was time to make her appearance.

"John!"

"What the hell!?" Was his response, and Jane was 'warmly' greeted with three guns pointed at her. Well, so much for voice recognition working both ways. "Jane? What are you doing here?"

"I believe I'm the one who should be asking you that." She responded. She then turned her attention from John and quickly glanced at both the turian and krogan, neither one of them taking their guns off of her. "Alright, may the agitated parties in the room please lower their weapons?"

No response.

"She's a friendly, no need to point weapons at her." John said, and the two aliens then put their weapons away. And once again, another display of how dick-face seemed to be able to do the simple things that she couldn't. Who in the hell points their guns at a 'civilian' anyway?

"If you say so, Shepard." Wrex said, "But we should really get moving if we want to have any shot of saving that quarian."

"Wait, what quarian?" Jane asked, but her question was completely ignored as the trio made their way past her. _Alright_ , guess she'd have to follow them to find out for herself, but this second best crap was really starting to irritate her. As she followed behind the group of guys on their way to...wherever they were going, suddenly shots rang out and everyone scrambled to find cover. Well, except Jane, she was caught off-guard and backtracked back into the room of a dead Fist. She didn't have the armor for this, nor the time and patience, and she was not about to get shot by some common thugs!

Today...did not seem to be turning out quite like she hoped it would.


	2. And The Adventure Begins!

So far, today sucked.

Jane had been on a wild goose chase looking for her brother, which would then lead to her meeting some scumbag named Harkin. Not only that, but she also met a fanboy of John's, was around way more dead bodies than she would've liked to be, and found herself in a pretty bad situation.

Was today a Monday? Kind of had that vibe about it.

"Push forward!" John would yell out before taking out a group of thugs with a toxic grenade.

See, these were the times where Jane really wished she had her sniper rifle with her, then she could be all comfortable and badass while taking out some baddies without armor on. She wasn't the best sniper in the entire universe but, as far as she was concerned, no one in the Alliance could best her. Alas, she was stuck with her sidearm, which she only used when her rifle overheated. Peeking out from her cover, she watched as John and his new friends began to make their way closer to the door. After a few more thrown grenades and some surprising biotic abilities from the krogan, everyone began to make their way towards where this quarian was supposed to be.

Everyone would then proceed into the nearest alleyway and sure enough, she was there. However, Jane had been unaware that she was to be making a deal. With some assassins. Which they were supposed to be saving her from. Though she'd found out soon enough, with all the sudden gunfire blasting around the place it was hard not to notice it. So yet again she found herself behind cover with her crummy sidearm, while John and friends began tearing the assassins apart.

This was a load of crap, he could've at least told her in advance that something like this might happen. But to be honest this entire situation seemed to be kind of unplanned. Also in his defense, she should've been prepared anyway; these types of things had a way of popping up on them without warning all of the time. But still, he had his armor and shields, and all she had was a pistol.

No fair.

But this was no time to whine and complain, she should at least make herself useful with this pistol and dish out some damage of her own. So after taking a deep breath, she jumped out of cover and quickly scanned the area for any more hostiles, only to find that they were all taken care off. Wow, just...wow. She was finally about to show her skill with a pistol, and all of the assassins were dead. Initially disappointed, she was able to take one good thing away from it: at least she didn't get shot.

The small group then made their way towards the quarian, who seemed to be okay. No wounds or bruises, or at least none that were visible on that suit of hers.

"Fist set me up!" The quarian complained. While Jane knew that she might not have known that from the start, it was nothing short of unbearably obvious at this point.

"Don't worry about Fist, he got what was coming to him." Said John. "You aren't hurt, are you?"

"I could've handled it myself, but thanks for the help." She replied. "If I may ask, who are you people?"

"I'm Commander Shepard, there's Garrus, then Wrex, and over there behind those boxes is my sister, Jane."

"1st Lieutenant Jane Shepard!" She corrected.

"Whatever. Anyway, we've come looking for you because we heard you might have some incriminating evidence about the Spectre named Saren."

The quarian, whose name was revealed to be Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, agreed, and offered to give the information to them for their help with the assassins. They then proceeded to make their way to the human embassy where Udina and Anderson were awaiting them. Udina, as usual, was bitching and moaning about something that he most likely would get an answer to if he'd just shut his mouth and listen. John was quick to point this out when the subject of a quarian being with their group was brought up, which made Jane snicker when Udina was at a loss for words.

And then Tali began to show everyone her information, which included some recordings that she had recovered from a geth. It involved Saren talking about something called the Conduit, whatever that could be. And then there was another voice talking, this one was from some lady who was talking about the return of the Reapers. Hold on now...just what were Reapers, and why did these two want them to return?

John had begun speaking about how he had felt that he had heard of the Reapers from somewhere before, and then recalled his experience on Eden Prime. Wait, what? How come she didn't know about any of this!? From the way he was talking, it seemed to happen a while after the two of them last talked, which would of been about a week ago. So, from what she had just gathered: John went to Eden Prime, fought some geth, saved some people, and _came into contact with a freakin' prothean device._ Why in the hell...were his adventures always more exciting than hers!? She didn't do anything worthy of praise last week, she simply sat aboard a dreadnought and read books. Yeah, actual ones too, because she liked to read from _actual_ books for the _actual_ feel of flipping _actual_ pages.

But that's besides the point! Now they had enough evidence for the Council to do something about Saren! This was all coming from what Jane was hearing, she didn't actually know _why_ they wanted to do this to Saren. It took her having to ask for more details before she was given the full story. So this Saren guy was apparently going rogue and allied with the geth so that he could probably wipe out humanity or something. And with the information Tali gathered, they were now going to get his spectre status revoked so that action could be taken against him. Alright, that sounded all nice and well, it was about time they went and put the plan into motion.

Once they reached the Citadel Tower they presented the evidence to the Council and just as they hoped, Saren's spectre status was revoked. The asari councilor was also able to figure out that the voice that was talking to Saren had been that of an asari matriarch named Benezia. And now came the question of 'what now?'. So, they now had the right to go after him or something? Jane's questions would soon be answered, because as she was deep in thought about the actions they would take against Saren, the Council had agreed on something else. And what was it they agreed on?

They made John the dick-face Commander, into John the dick-faced Commander who also now happened to be a friggin' _Spectre_.

After the speech they gave John, Jane could do nothing but stare at him in disbelief. They made John, her big brother, a Spectre? Great, another thing he could hold over her. He was born first, saved a bunch of lives first, became an N7 operative first, among other things. She wouldn't give him any crap about it though; if anyone deserved to be a spectre, it was him. She deserved it more, but like she said to herself, she'd let him have this moment. Until they left the Citadel, then she'd spew all of her nonsense at him.

Then it seemed time to leave and go on the pursuit of Saren. Once they were at the loading docks Udina and Anderson would meet them for the final time today and explain a few things. So, not only had John become a Spectre, but now he was also commanding officer of the Normandy!? What the hell was going on around here? Despite her utter shock and disbelief she kept her head high and her eyes tear-free.

Their objectives were Feros and Noveria, along with the goal of searching for Benezia's daughter Liara T'Soni. John thought it best to start with Feros, but Jane persuaded him to look for Liara first. They could use a prothean expert for this type of big-scale mission, plus...well her mother was a bad guy, best go get her now before she had a chance to go into hiding or something. Once their conversation ceased the small group made their way aboard the Normandy, with Jane and John walking behind them in order to have a quick chat.

"Seriously, who'd you have to bump uglies with to become a Spectre?"

"You could be normal and say 'Good Job'."

"Was it the salarian?"

"No."

"I knew it! It was the turian then!"

" _Jane_."

"Just messing with you. Congrats, dick-face."

"Jealous much?"

"Damn right I am!"


	3. Little Meet and Greet

Amazing. Simply...amazing.

That was the only word that Jane could use to describe the interior of the Normandy. She hadn't been aboard before, only given very vague descriptions by John. All she could gather from his rambling was that the ship was beautiful, had some turian design crafted into it, and was a really awesome place to prank people. That last one may have been a footnote or something, but nonetheless she was happy to be on such a majestic piece of firepower. It was then that John seemed to notice her fascination with the Normandy's interior and had one of his 'let's have some fun' moments.

"So, Jane, how does it feel to be inside of the Normandy?" He'd ask her.

"It feels so amazing! I can't believe I'm actually doing this!" She'd respond, unaware of what John was implying. It was too late anyway, she had already taken the bait.

"Calm down Jane, don't want to get too excited."

"Why not? This is everything I thought it would be! It's...wait, why are you snickering?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Perverted bastard." Jane would tell him before walking away. Alright, so she had unfortunately known the ship's captain, now it was time to meet some of the other occupants of the ship. Who should she visit first though? She could go and see the pilot, from what John said he was a pretty fun guy and all, except he had some type of condition which she should probably figure out before she tried any pranks on the guy. There was the doctor, seemed like it would be nice to meet the person would would most likely be the one patching her up every now and then. Along with the new crewmates John had met on the Citadel, and the engineers below deck, there were a lot of new faces to meet. She just hoped she would be able to at least remember everyone on this ship, back on the Kilimanjaro she could only remember a limited amount of names to faces, and that somewhat upset her. She was not going to go through that again!

So, since she was closest to the pilot, that was who she was going to meet first. She made her way into the pilot's little nest and made her way to his left side, watching over his shoulder as he prepared to ready the Normandy to depart from the Citadel.

"You must be the Commander's little sister." He'd say, though he didn't turn to face her when he did so. "Look, I know you're new on the ship and everything looks so pretty you want to touch it but please, don't."

"Relax pooper, I'm just making myself known to the crew." Jane told him. "So what's your name? Unless, of course, I was spot on with the 'pooper' one."

"Very funny. Joker's the name." He responded. Joker was fine and all, but Jane wondered why he had told her his nickname instead of his actual name; you know, the name that she had actually asked for. It probably sounded cooler than his real name, or he was just toying with her. Either way, she wasn't about to dig any deeper than that. Not now anyway.

"Alright, Joker, nice to meet you...and, um...goodbye, for now." She would then turn and begin to walk away before the pilot stopped her.

"You know, if you're going to ask for my name, it's polite to give your name in return."

"Why? You say that like you don't know my name...you _do_ know my name, don't you?"

"Would you be happy if I called you 'Little Shepard'?"

Damn, he didn't know her name? No, he was just messing with her, of course he'd have to know her name. She was pretty sure John mentioned the family every now and again, and even if he didn't it wasn't like he was the only noticeable Shepard in existence. Joker was just messing around, that had to be it, so she figured she'd give him what he wanted and go meet the others. Though she'd make sure this was the only time he'd get a win over her.

"I'm Jane, happy now?" She said with a slight smile creeping onto her face.

"See, _Jane_ , was that so hard?"

"Shouldn't you be worrying about crashing into some space rocks or something?" Jane jokingly asked before she walked away in search of more people to talk to. She was sure she heard Joker mutter something, but she'd leave him be...for now anyway.

 _Now let's see, who was the next in line to get a talking to?_ She wondered to herself. Besides all of the people she seemed to be passing by of course. In her mind, she was looking for the more important people aboard the ship to converse with before they made their way to wherever it was this Liara lady was currently at. And just when she couldn't decide on whether or not she should even bother to talk to Pressly, he appeared seemingly out of thin air! Seriously! And it had the potential to scare the literalncrap out of her, had there been any crap that needed crapping at the time.

"Fucking Pandas!" Jane shouted in surprise, which in turn startled Pressly as well. And for good reason too, just what in the hell did Jane's mouth say?

"Oh, sorry to scare you like that Lieutenant." Pressly assured Jane. "But I heard from the Commander that you were taking a little tour around the Normandy and wondered if you might need any assistance with that?"

"Don't worry about that sir, I've got it covered." Jane told him. "But, thanks for asking."

"No problem, if you need anything don't be afraid to ask." He told her before walking off to do...whatever it was he did. Besides his job, he probably found time to stare at people and make them uncomfortable. He just seemed to have that 'I want you close to my soul' facial expression. Now that the brief and awkward talk between those two seemed to be over, time to go and find the good doctor.

Jane made her way lower beneath the ship towards what she believed was the doctor's office. Instead, it was John's room, which John was currently occupying. Hmm, looked like she was meant to go in the room parallel to this one. Heh, figures.

"Jane, wanted to ask me something?" John asked her. Funny thing, he was just standing there looking at a picture of himself. As if he was an almighty being or something.

"Nope, just looking around is all. But your pilot thinks he's funny...I've got my eyes on him." She told him as she slowly backed out of his room. "Now I'm going to have a nice friendly chat with the doctor."

"Doctor Chakwas, dear." Called a voice.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm Doctor Chakwas." Said the voice again, this time closer than it was before. When Jane turned around, she was yet again startled by some oldie, which made her shout once more.

"Damning Banditos!" She shouted, though this one was less obscure than the one before. It also unfazed the doctor, though, seeing as how she dealt with more pressing matters Jane found it would be hard to find Chakwas showing any outright fear. "Oh, hi Doctor, I was just on my way to see you."

"I see, nice to meet you Lieutenant."

"So...anything I should know about you?"

"Well I do believe that I'll be the one tending to your wounds, along with everyone else's of course. That, and I've received your medical reports, and I heavily suggest you not resist taking your weekly pills."

"...Whatever." Jane said in a defeated tone. She was just like the other doctors, though she felt that this particular doctor would make sure she took her pills. Jeez, when did having not enough iron in the body hurt anyone? And with that, she left the doctor to talk to John. She felt anxious around doctors, and that was because they usually had needles. And needles weren't really all that bad, unless you got a glimpse of one and found yourself needing security to hold you down for a simple injection. Yeah, needles tend to have that effect on Jane, and she didn't care. It made the trip that much more exciting...for her of course. For the doctors it was probably a very stressful time.

Once she was out of hearing range of the doctor, she sighed and found herself beside the elevator that led lower into the ship. That was where John placed the other crewmates, so that was where she'd go herself. Once the door opened she entered, pressed the green button, and eventually arrived at her destination. Once she was down there she walked off of the elevator and looked around as to see who she'd talk to first. Wrex seemed...unwelcoming, so she'd avoid him for now. Williams and Alenko were having a conversation, and Garrus was busy working on the Mako. Tali was probably hanging with the engineers, which left the random guy to her right. Wait, what? This guy seemed out of place here, if not for the sole reason that she had not seen him yet. So, with peaked curiosity, she walked over to him and gave him a polite smile as if to say 'I come in peace, I will not harm you unless you provoke me'.

"Hey, what're you doing down here?" Jane asked. Then, remembering her talk with Joker, sighed before clearing her throat. "By the way, I'm Lieutenant Jane Shepard."

"Nice to meet you Lieutenant, Requisitions Officer Mark Baker." He told her. "I'm the guy to come to if you need any supplies when we're not docked somewhere."

"Oh, really?" She inquired. "So, say I need some upgrades for my sniper rifle, you'd have those?"

"I sure would."

"Alright, now say I wanted a new sniper rifle altogether. Would you be able to get me one?"

"I'd be happy to."

"Nice! But, what about armor? I'm sure you've got some armor that no one is using anytime soon."

"Hmm...depends."

"On what?"

"On what types of licenses you can get me."

"What? You mean I have to work for it?" Jane whined. "Oh well, where can I find these licenses?"

"All over, usually you can get them from store clerks. The more you have, the wider variety of things I'll have."

"Jeez, I have to do a whole lot just for some armor!? [sigh] Well, whatever the cost to get free stuff."

"..."

"What?"

"This stuff isn't free."

"What the hell do you mean it isn't free!? You dick-face, you could've told me that before I got all excited!"

"Sorry ma'am, but I go through great lengths to get this stuff. The least I can do is charge for it."

"Fine! Whatever, just tell me you sell the stuff with some type of discount."

"Well..."

"It's official, I don't need this." Jane said, effectively ending the conversation between the two. Now, to go and properly introduce herself to Garrus the Turian. He was still working on the Mako, well whatever he was doing was going to have to take a backseat right about now.

"Garrus, right?" She asked. Of course, she already knew it was in fact Garrus, but she was unsure about if he knew her or not. "Lieutenant Jane Shepard, we somewhat met down on the Citadel."

"Yes, we did. Garrus Vakarian, former C-Sec officer, at your service." He told her.

"Cut the gentleman act Vakarian, I'm not running this show." Jane reminded him. "I'm just talking to everyone aboard the ship, getting a feel for who it is I'm working with and stuff."

"Ah, alright then. Well first things first, I'm a turian...wanted to make sure you understood that."

"No shit. Anyway, I'm noticing the visor you've got, you would't happen to be a sniper by any chance?"

"A sniper? [chuckle] Lieutenant, I'm not just 'a sniper', I'm one of the best."

"My, what a great big nose you have, Vakarian."

"I take it that's a human expression. With a hint of sarcasm I may add."

"Why yes it is bird-face. You see, for you to be one of the best sniper, you must be on par with me. Seeing as how I'm pretty sure you aren't, you cannot possibly be one of the best. Not only because I doubt your skills, but because I say so. I'm one of the best, you can be my student."

"You? I don't mean to be rude but, I doubt you can even properly _hold_ a rifle that size, let alone make it shoot."

"Ha, you sound like guys everywhere." Jane retorted with a grin. "Tell you what Garrus, when we've got some time on our hands, you and me are going to take a little trip to Pinnacle Station. Not too far out, we can run some simulations, see which of us is the better shot."

"Trying to prove your worth by beating me in _simulations_?"

"Loser buys the winner a new rifle."

"Hmph, if you say so. Better tell the Commander to up your allowance."

Over the intercom, Joker had alerted everyone of their proximity to where Liara was to be found, and that John called for Jane and Wrex to meet him near the Mako. Good, she was ready to get this out of the way and finally meet this prothean expert. She found herself hoping they would run into some baddies, though a nice and quiet search would be just as good. Guess she'd have to talk to everyone else later, for now she would be content with the people she got to meet. Except that Req Officer...that guy sucked.

"We'll finish this discussion later, Lieutenant."

"No, _we_ won't be finishing anything. _I'll_ finish this later."


	4. Disregard Geth, Acquire Doctor

The plan was to be executed on a Monday. _Remember that._

The plan was to find Liara T'Soni and get out of this place, right? Well, certain things happened that made the mission parameters change slightly. For one, there were geth here...a whole lot of geth. And they weren't just the weak troopers that were fun to blast at, there were some juiced-up destroyers here with them. The snipers gave Jane a run for her money, if it wasn't for the fact that they were shooting to kill then she might've had a little fun. But no, she was stuck killing these things with Wrex and John while on the hunt for 'the prothean expert'. Oh, and speaking of killing geth with Wrex and John...

"You know Shepard, I'm not complaining or anything but, couldn't we have just...driven past most of these?" Wrex asked.

The question itself made Jane very upset. Reason being, she already knew this; in fact, _she_ was the one who even hinted at this when they fought off the first few geth they encountered. And boy, were those first geth something else.

"Why would we do that?" John answered. "We're gonna show those geth bastards that we aren't afraid of them. Best way to do it would be by taking down the ones we come across."

"Is that _really_ your thought process right now, John?" Jane asked. She was getting more upset by the moment, and if John didn't choose his next words very carefully, he was going to get shot.

"Hey, if we're gonna find that prothean doctor then we need to remove all enemies in our way."

"...No! We need to stay alive so we can find the doctor, not fight unnecessary battles like these!"

"Are you saying my methods are unnecessary?"

"Yes! That's _exactly_ what I'm saying!"

"Settle down, children." Wrex said as he hopped back into the Mako. "You can fight later, right now we need to go find the asari doctor. And then you can argue aboard the Normandy."

"Whatever, I guess we can do it your way for now." John muttered before stepping inside the Mako, though it was obvious that he wasn't happy. Jane didn't care, as long as they followed her plan and not his, then maybe they'd actually live long enough to see the doctor. As they drove onward they passed any geth they happened to run into, and while the Mako's shields were holding, John was already getting antsy. As long as he didn't get Wrex to stop the Mako, Jane was content to let him be his weird and jerky self.

From that point on, they had only left the Mako twice; once to deal with a blockade problem, and because there was a spot which the Mako just couldn't fit through. So they continued on foot, and fought more geth on foot. John and Wrex were the front line, and Jane was in the back picking off any geth she was able to focus into her scope. Those damn snipers were good though, managed to bring her shields down quite a bit before she was able to take them out. Hell, one of them almost got a good shot at her had Wrex not spotted it. He took the sniper down with some handy biotic work, which Jane still could not believe he could use.

As they moved forward it seemed as if they had a clear shot at the ruins where T'Soni could be, but as usual, they were screwed over. A geth dropship had dropped off some more troops, and even before that there seemed to be geth in hiding that they couldn't find because...well, they were very good hiders. And that was surely one of the top ten firefights Jane had been in so far, for the simple fact that she nearly used up all of her medi-gel. That, and her shields got disabled...and she got shot in her left shoulder...and had gotten blasted by that geth cannon blaster and nearly died. But hey, John and Wrex weren't faring much better.

Lies, they were faring much better. Probably because they didn't need to stand like a statue to get a good shot. But eventually, they killed them all and proceeded inside of the ruins. After killing the first few geth inside of there, John thought it the perfect time to patronize Jane.

"You know, if you had been a little quicker on the draw you might've held your ground a little better."

"I got shot in the shoulder, blasted in the chest, nearly died...and that's all you can say?"

"Relax, I knew you'd be fine. This all could've been handled better though. Always keep an assault rifle, a little lesson for my little sister."

"You and me? We'll settle this later." Jane said as she brushed John's comments aside for the moment. There were more important things to attend to, and she didn't need any geth knowing about it. As they went down the elevator shafts the second one began to malfunction and seemingly cease to work. Oh well, no going back up that way. Though once they got off, they heard the calls of someone in need of help. If the trio were lucky, it would belong to their doctor.

And sure enough, it was her. Though as of the moment she seemed to be in a little predicament.

"Hello! Can you hear me out there? I am trapped, I need help!" She would call out. Not exactly the wisest course of action when there were geth crawling around here.

"Shush! Geth are here, and you need to be quiet." John told her. "Now, how do we get you out?"

And then she told the group her story, how she had been there studying when geth and a krogan arrived. She kept herself safe behind the barriers, but she seemingly pressed a wrong button and gotten herself stuck. To top it all off, you couldn't get in from the outside, so they had to find some way inside. How exciting...

They began looking around when Wrex spotted a geth shock trooper closing in on them and began firing, which resulted in all geth firing on him, then Jane and John responded by firing on all of the other geth.

It was pretty sweet from John's perspective, Wrex thought it was blood-boiling fun, and Jane? Jane just wanted to go home at this point.

But in the end, the group came out on top, though Jane wasn't too thrilled she had to eventually resort to using her pistol. It was nice and all, but it just wasn't the same. There was a mining laser positioned in such a way that if they shot it, it could potentially give them a way inside to rescue Liara. And yet again, the tech savvy Jane had to come to the rescue. It took her a while, but once she understood the controls she was able to get it up and working in no time. After the laser was done doing its' thing, they rushed up to get Liara free of her bubble thing. The obvious question came up wondering if she was working with her mother or not, and when she denied it everyone just said 'okay' and were on their way. Just as they were about to leave, some seismic activity began to happen, mainly caused by the mining laser. So now they had to leave as soon as possible before the place collapsed on them...great. Just...great. To add to that, Joker's ETA was about eight minutes, and the group seemed to have mainly negative feelings about that.

"Today is Monday, right? Figures." Jane said with a sigh.

The elevator then took them up until it came to a complete stop. And wouldn't you know it, more enemies! Didn't they kill everyone already? In front of them were about a dozen geth, and one krogan; said krogan began to walk towards them with a few geth following behind him. With a shotgun in his hands, Jane was pretty sure this guy was not about to just let them leave without a fight, so as soon as he opened his mouth, she shot him in it. That was a clear signal to everyone else to fire, and yet again another shootout commenced. This time was shorter however, as there were fewer hiding places for the geth to run away to.

Then Liara opened the barrier near the walkway that Jane and the others had come through, and the race was on! Literally. The place started to come down around them, there was no time to lose. As everyone began to run for their lives Jane's mind took this very serious time and turned it into a game of sorts. A game of speed, in which she would've been winning had she been able to properly swing her left arm. John was ahead of her, Liara was ahead of her, and Wrex was probably close to her in case she fell or something, though she doubted that. At this point, she was simply as fast as a non-charging krogan was, so...she didn't know how to take that.

"Damn it Lieutenant, hurry it up will ya!?" She had heard Wrex yell.

"I'm trying my best, lizard-boy!" Was her response. The situation was getting tense, and she did not need someone to remind her that she wasn't exactly being a great sprinter. And then it happened, that thing she would from this point forward remember as 'one of those things that we don't talk about'. She fell...during a time in which falling typically meant death. But that wasn't even the worst part! Okay, it really was, but not to her anyway. The worst part was when Wrex grabbed her by the collar of her armor and charged out of mine. It wasn't so bad, the only thing hurt was her pride. But at least she was alive...and thanks to Wrex again, no less.

"Stand tall Shepard, we've still got to get off of this rock." He told her as he let go of her collar an began to walk towards the Normandy. He couldn't at least help her up? No 'You okay down there, Shepard?' talk? Whatever, he was probably hoping for her to thank him, which would not be happening anytime soon.

"I could've made it on my own...but since you were such a gentleman, good job." She said. Well, it was as close to a thank you as he was gonna get. As she stood back on her own two feet she quickly glanced back at the now destroyed prothean dig site, and muttered under her breath that finding this T'Soni chick had better have been worth it. Once she turned back around she walked towards the Normandy as well, the last one to do so. This place was nothing short of a headache: hordes of geth, a krogan with a shotgun, the other krogan with a shotgun, John's 'kill or be killed' mentality, and this doctor getting herself stuck in some trap she would've probably never escaped from had it not been for them.

"I hate Mondays."


	5. The Second Meet and Greet

"I'm telling you Lieutenant, my tier 4 Equalizer outshines your Naginata any day."

"You think so?"

"I _know_ so. Not only does it do more damage, it-"

"Stop. For one, you use no mods. _Why?_ Second, it's a no-brainer that my fourth gear Nagi is more accurate than your... _thing_. Add to that some improved sighting and Hammerhead rounds and you've got a mighty fine weapon. Well, at least _I_ do."

"I don't _need_ mods to be good, Shepard."

"Oh yeah? You also don't _need_ mods to take a bullet to the face, but I guess I don't know anything."

Nothing more than friendly banter between Jane and Garrus in the Infirmary, conversing on who had the better sniper rifle. Garrus had argued that his rifle was good all on its own, but Jane begged to differ, stating that mods made a good rifle better. These two had been going on for quite some time before returned to tend to Jane's wounds. Her left shoulder and chest were bandaged underneath her shirt and she had been told to refrain from heavy bouts of laughter until her chest fully healed. It was fine for now, but hopefully she'd be up and running soon. They were taking a pit stop back at the Citadel before heading on to Noveria, so she'd try to get herself a better rifle. The ship's Requisitions Officer onboard didn't have anything good, ever.

Ever.

"Well I'd better head back below deck, we'll finish this conversation later Lieutenant."

"See ya, Vakarian." She'd say. Once Garrus left the room would make her way to Jane's side and check her shoulder bandages. "That guy thinks he's top gun on this ship. I'd laugh, but doctor's orders says I can't."

"Indeed." She'd respond with a slight chuckle. "So Lieutenant, how are you feeling?"

"Well, my shoulder feels good. I can inhale without too much trouble, and my pride is slowly rebuilding itself."

"That's good. Looks like you're making strides in your recovery. However, I suggest you hold off on doing any straining physical activties for awhile, at least until you can breathe normally."

"Yes, ma'am. So, is the check-up done?"

"Yes dear, you can go now."

"Alright! No offense, but laying in this for hours at a time is terrible. While awake, anyway." Jane would say as she rolled off of the bed and began to exit the Infirmary. She waved goodbye to before heading out, deciding to head over to John's room and see if he was in. Before she arrived to her destination however, she had been intercepted by Kaidan. He wanted to talk to her, and she didn't wanna be rude and blow him off, so the least she could do was listen to what he had to say

"Hey there Lieutenant." He said.

"Lieutenant Alenko, nice to see you again."

"I was just wondering how you were feeling. We haven't had a chance to talk much, get to know each other a little better."

"Thank you for the concern. And I'd be happy to have a sit-down with you and have some girl talk and all...but I'm actually on my way to talk to John. We can talk more once we've reached the Citadel, okay?"

"Sure thing. Oh, by the way, if you're heading down a level can you tell Ash to come see me?"

"No problem, see ya around." And with that, she waved goodbye to Alenko and made her way into John's room. Once inside she would find him writing up a report on what had just happened and the like. He looked up to acknowledge her presence before focusing back on his work.

"How's everything holding up?" He'd ask. Wow, what a weird way to ask if she was okay.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. So, I missed the group meeting, care to tell me what I missed?"

"Sure. So, first things first we...and by 'we' I mean 'I', decided to allow Liara to stay aboard the Normandy. Yes, it's a bit of a risk, seeing as how we don't fully know her association with Benezia besides being her daughter but, I'm not just gonna hand her over to the Council."

"Why not?"

"The Turian Councilor is a dick, that's why. You can't be a dick to a dick, it never goes well."

"Look at you, finally catching on. So T'Soni stays with us in the meantime, got it. What are our plans for Noveria? If we're lucky all we'll have to do is find her and get some information out of her."

"Actually...change of plans on that. We've-"

"And by 'we've' you mean 'I've'."

"Whatever, _I've_ had a change of thought and decided we'd go to Feros next. After our trip to the Citadel of course. As of the game plan, I don't really know yet, I'm still working on it."

"Alright, that's all I really wanted. We'll talk later."

"Okay. Oh, you should go talk to Wrex. You know, thank him for saving your ass and all."

"Sure, whatever. I was heading down there anyway, might as well talk to the overgrown toad on the way. See ya."

She would then make her way to the elevator and go down below deck. While the elevator went down she began to think to herself about something. She had gotten pretty banged up down on Therum, and she was having her armor looked over to see if she'd need a new set. It had dawned on her that no one had told her anything about that. If she did, then she would have to make sure to pick out some new gear there. And speaking of gear...

"Hey there Lieutenant."

It just had to be this guy. Granted, this was the spot he (for some odd reason) decided that he'd sell gear. Which was fine and all, but why on the lower level? Surely he could just make the transaction somewhere like the kitchen, take the customer down here and just hand them the weapon or armor. But as she thought that out in its entirety, it soon became apparent that maybe her way was a bit complicated. More normal, but complicated.

"Officer Baker, how's it going?"

"Well enough, I suppose. I take it you're wanting to get ahold of some new armor right?"

"...No? Why would you ask that?"

"Oh, uh, well I had heard what had happened to your armor and-"

"What happened to my armor!?" She interrupted. This was news to her, was something going on with her armor? Oh Gods, it was busted wasn't it? She was gonna have to get new armor for sure now, and just her luck to be stuck with the guy who had the high-ass prices.

"It's...well, useless now. It could be repaired, but that would take too long, and you're probably not a fan of waiting for things like that. So tell you what, I'll do you a one time favor. Once, and only once, can you look through my stock of armor and pick one out. For free."

"Free? As in, I won't have to pay now or later free? No embarrassing and/or disgusting favor free? Absolutely free, free?"

"That's what I said."

"Lifesaver!" She shouted, quickly bringing the man in for a hug. "I can't thank you enough! I promise, I'll repay the favor one of these days."

"I'm sure you will, now, can you let me go? You're wrapped around my neck a little too tightly."

"Oh, sorry. Well, let's get to it!"

The two would then go through all of the available armors that were available and, just like usual, it didn't seem like he really had much that had any value. She'd need to pick something though, so she continued to look until she saw a pair of armor that was actually better than her previous one. And of course, it would be hidden from plain sight. Unfortunate for him that she needed this free armor badly. The look on his face when she found it was priceless, the whole 'crap, she's found my stash' expression he was giving off was enough to make her grin. Sucks that he said she could pick one for free, otherwise this wouldn't have happened. She also wouldn't be getting armor, but no reason to bring that up.

"This armor seems nice." She'd say, knowing full well it was the nicest in the bunch. "It's light, and fit for a woman's body. And...Rosenkov Materials? So this is Titan armor, then?"

"Yes, tier 5 as a matter of fact."

"Ooh, that's two higher than my old stuff. I'm sold, I'll be back for it later my good friend." And she would depart with a wave and keep moving. Her next person of interest was the Gunnery Chief, which was on behalf of good ol' Kaidan. She walked over to Ashley and did a little whistle to get her attention. Once she turned her head to see who it was, she gave Jane a nice little smile...

Before returning to work. Um...okay?

"Hey Ashley, got a message for you. It's from _Alenko_."

"What does he want?" She asked, attention still not focused on Jane. Maybe she was thinking about something? Or just being a dick, but she didn't let herself jump to that conclusion.

"Don't know, says he'd like to see you though. Up the elevator in the mess hall, you can't miss him."

"Thanks, I'll go talk to him when I have some free time."

"Okay then." She would say. She didn't want to leave the conversation like that, but she was getting a vibe that maybe this wasn't the best time for a conversation. That was fine, they would have some time to talk on the Citadel. For now though, she'd move on. Move onto Wrex, that is.

"Shepard." He'd say.

"Wrex." She'd respond. "John told me that you had some things you wanted me to say to you. Well, things that he wanted me to say to you. But you're a big boy, you don't need anyone telling you silly things like 'Thank you' and stuff, right?"

"Well Shepard, I'd-"

"I thought so!" She interrupted. She had no intentions of apologizing...at least for now anyway. She would've been fine if not for John so, in her mind, John should've been the one thanking Wrex for putting up with his idiotic crap on the last mission. She would've departed with that, a smug grin already on her face, but something had begun to eat at her and she just had to answer it. "By the way, exactly why are you here?"

"Why is _anyone_ here?" He said. He looked a little agitated but seriously, when didn't a Krogan look agitated?

"Well, we've got the crewmembers, Liara is under our protection, Tali wants to do awesome stuff for her Pilgrammage, and Garrus wants to shoot Saren in his scaly face. But you...you're a mystery. It's like you're here just to be here. Unless you just want to kill Saren like the rest of us, that is?"

"...Yep. Only reason I joined up."

"Huh. Well, have fun with that." She said before exiting stage right. Well, at least he was being truthful. From what she was hearing, Saren was a dick...there's a joke there, but she chose not to say it. Yet. But last on her list was Tali, whom she actually found out a little bit about from John. Appparently she was like some type of Quarian royalty, only, they didn't handle royalty like she expected them to. Instead of her being heir to some throne or something, she wasn't even in line for it or anything!

Well, she could ask her about that soon, because she was on her way to talk to her quarian pal. Only, once she had gotten close to her, it seemed as if she seemed to be down about something.

"Oh, hello Jane."

Yep, definetely down about something. "Something wrong Tali? You sound a little, I don't know, sad."

"It's nothing, really. It's just...the ship is so _quiet_ , it's like half of the people are missing." She told her. Huh, never seemed that way to her. Then again, maybe that's because their situations were different growing up. The ships she lived on weren't heaping piles of crap stuck together with glue. No offense, of course.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it after a while. It's...different, ya know? From the ships in the Flotilla I mean. This ship is some grade A stuff right here and...well, aren't the ships in your fleet really old?"

"Yes, but it's just so quiet, how do you even sleep?"

"Huh. Never thought about that. I guess I don't have to worry about any ship malfunctions so, I'm pretty sure I sleep wonderfully. But like I said, you'll get used to it."

"I don't know..."

"Well, since you don't know that, know this. Any problems you've got, good ol' Jane is here! For instance, you're feeling down about how quiet the ship is, right? Well then, when we take our little break at the Citadel, it's you and me against the world! _Figuratively_ , of course...taking on the world with just two people seems a bit much right now."

Tali seemed to get a kick out of that a let out a little chuckle, which to Jane meant mission accomplished. Tali was less sad and, since she didn't object to hanging out at the Citadel, it looked like she'd have something to do besides look for a better rifle. Saying her goodbyes, Jane would make her way back to the elevator and begin planning out her trip to the Citadel. But first...

"Hey! Sir Baker! Bring my gear up, I want to try it on before we get to the Citadel!"


	6. Feros

Feros.

The place where they were supposed to save a colony of people from the geth. Or so Jane was told; she didn't listen as well as she should have to the briefing. But what she did know was that she was apart of a two-person scouting group, her partner being Garrus Vakarian. It wasn't a hard choice for 'Mr. Commander' John to make, both were snipers, so they'd obviously be the better choices for scouting ahead. Though she herself firmly believed she was the best option period.

She met with Garrus beside the loading bay and checked her sniper rifle, making sure there was no possible way it would fail her. Garrus seemed to notice this and, either out of some weird sense of humor or just jackassery, called her out on it.

"Hope there's nothing wrong with your rifle, Lieutenant. Wouldn't want to report back that you died on a scouting mission." He'd say. Jane would reply with a soft chuckle before the loading bay doors opened.

"Don't worry about it, Vakarian. Maybe when your rifle overheats I'll be there to make fun of you..if you don't die on me, that is." She said before walking in front of him. While this may have been a two-person team, she was technically the higher ranking official, so she was leading it. No ifs, ands, or buts about it! As soon as they exited the Normandy they noticed that there was a colonist seemingly waiting for them. They would approach him, though they made sure to do so cautiously with their guns steady just in case.

You never know, the geth might have done something freaky to this guy.

"Fai Dan wants to speak with you immediately," the man would say. Then, after noticing that there were only the two of them, he asked a question. "Um, where are the rest of your group?"

"Sir, don't worry about that," Garrus told him. Hopefully he meant it in a nice way, because if so, then the tone of his voice seemed to betray him.

"They'll be with us shortly," Jane had told him, so as to assure him that he and the colonists would not have to rely on only two individuals. "We're just the scout party, but don't worry, because we're a damn good scout party."

"Well then, let me lead you to him. He's not that far away," the colonist said before...well...

Before he exploded.

It was the geth, and while the trio had been conversing those damn synthetics had been converging on their location. Jane was amazed she didn't see them coming, they could have only appeared from the right, and she was sure she should have at least spotted one of them. But there was no time to dwell on that, she had ducked behind cover and readied her rifle to shoot. Garrus had done the same, though he had already begun to shoot down geth. Damn, that turian had some reflexes. He wasn't better than her or anything, but it was nice to know that she didn't need to watch his back as closely as she originally thought.

They handled the first few with ease, then as they made their way around the first corner they were met with more geth resistance. Good, more kills for her to rack up against Garrus. Yes, she was actually tallying who got more kills, and unfortunately Garrus was winning. Once they finished off the last few geth hanging around, he made a point of showing that he was keeping score as well.

"You know, Lieutenant, I've got three more kills than you do."

"Hush, Vakarian, you know that's because I let you get them."

"Hmm, _'let me'_ huh? Well, if you'd like we can make this little game a bit more interesting. That is, if you're up to it?"

"Pfft, you can't hold a candle to me! Whatever it is, I'll do it!"

As the two of them began to talk out some sort of challenge, John would appear from where they had just come from, Tali and Wrex following not far behind him. Seems as though all the commotion had cut the scouting much shorter than she was expecting, but that was fine. As long as she ended up with a higher kill count than Garrus, she'd be content. Oh, and helping the colonists wasn't such a bad thing either.

"You two done playing around out here? If so, come on." John would then lead the small group towards the colony. It was...in need of help, sure. Not just with the geth though, this place needed an entire renovation. This is exactly why no one should try repurposing old prothean buildings, it just didn't work.

"The guy who I can only assume was gonna be our tour guide said Fai Dan was the leader." Jane would tell her big brother. "We should probably find him."

"We will, he's bound to be important looking."

And sure enough, they would find him at the opposite side of the colony along with some lady. There must have been geth over on this side as well...seems like these guys couldn't catch a break.

"I'm Commander Shepard of the Normandy, what's your status Fai Dan?" John would say, sounding all intimidating. Yeah, that's what these people needed, aggression from the people who were here to save them. But even funnier was, he hadn't asked anyone if this was Fai Dan. He just assumed it and, luckily, it was him. Boy, that would've been a funny thing to apoligize for.

"Thank you for arriving Commander," he said.

"Took you long enough, don't you think?" his lady friend would say. Jane didn't know what it was about her (probably the tension of an upcoming geth attack at any moment) but, her attitude was not welcome here. If anyone was gonna have an attitude, it was gonna be her. She would let her little comment slide. For now.

"Arcelia! Sorry about my companion's tone of voice, she's just a bit on edge. We all are."

"I understand, but I need details. What's going on here? Do you have any idea why the geth would be targeting Feros?" John asked. While he and Fai Dan tried to figure out the situation, Jane began to slowly break away from the group. She wanted to look around; not just so she could find (and kill) some geth, but this place did catch her interest. It was a colony made around old prothean ruins, there was bound to be something cool around here! Maybe she could even find a little trinket for Liara to research. But where would she begin her search? Well, past Fai Dan was an open doorway, perhaps that lead somewhere important. So she slowly made her way over to the door, and guess what she found?

Geth. A good amount of them were just feet away from making it out into the colony, but good thing Jane found them. Things could've gotten ugly had she not looked.

"Incoming geth!" she said, immediately backpedaling behind nearby cover afterwards. Everyone else would then scatter for cover before returning fire themselves. The geth were still in the narrow walkway so they were easy targets, but once those few were taken down that would still leave any who might've been hiding away. Perfect type of thing for a scout to do.

"Alright, Garrus and Wrex, you two come with me to look ahead for any remaining geth. Jane and Tali, you two stay behind and keep an eye out around here." John said, motioning for his two picked squadmates to follow him ahead. They didn't even reach the stairs and they were firing all over the place. Which was fine, soldiers and guys with guns did that and all, but...well...

She wanted to shoot stuff too.

"Aw, well that's terrific." she said, sighing afterwards. Here she was, (self) designated scout of the team...and she wasn't doing any scouting. What was even worse, was that Garrus was racking up kills and she was stuck with Tali and the colonists. Being stuck with Tali was fine; she was okay, and if their most recent trip to the Citadel was any indication, she knew how to have a good time. But these colonists...she didn't know these people, and they didn't know her. A crappy excuse, but it was all she had.

"Well, we could look around and see if we can find anything of use until they return." Tali suggested.

"They're basically scouting, Tali. Why leave me? Why take Vakarian?"

"It's okay. Come on, let's go find some stuff for you to do."

"I wanted to shoot things."

"I know you did."

And for nearly five minutes, that was what they did. They walked around and just existed. Sure there was that Salarian who was selling stuff, but other than that it was just everyone else and their problems. Granted, those problems involved the colony as a whole, but she couldn't just up and help them. For all she knew, John would come back, realize that Garrus sucked and she ruled, and bring her along. Unfortunately for her, however, that was not to be the case. Once John and friends were done pushing the geth back he decided that since Jane and Tali did such a wonderful job keeping the colonists safe, that they should continue doing so while the others go out and figure out why Saren and the geth are here.

And she was...upset. She reserved her dissapointment for her inner self, because she did not want to look like a whiny brat in front of a group of strangers. Even though her new helmet hid all but her eyes. But she had a colony to help, so she'd do her best to get this place in tip top shape before the others returned.

"Alright, Tali." she would say as she walked over to her friend. "We've got a few things we need to take care of around here. We need to turn on the water valve, kill an alpha varren, and find some replacement power cells. Easy enough, right?"

"But what about any geth that are in the tunnels?" she would ask.

"Simple, we kill them."

"Just the two of us? We don't even know how many are down there!"

"All the more reason to find out!" And with that, she made her way to the tunnels, Tail following right beside her. Well, more like behind her, but that was just so she could watch her back...right?

Right.

Beneath the tunnels it was like a maze, which made things a bit problematic for the duo. More so for Jane, who just wanted to shoot things to pass the time while big bro John went off and played the hero. She just blindly walked around and hoped to solve the colony's problems, assuring Tali that she knew what she was doing the whole time. Eventually they would find a group of geth hanging around in one of the corridors, putting a little grin on the sniper's face. She picked them off one by one, with an occasional bit of help from Tali every now and again. Once the geth had been taken care of, they noticed that they seemed to be guarding a power cell. Wonderful, now if they could just find the other cells, they would find other geth. And other geth, meant more shooting.

And more shooting, meant a happy Jane.

Continuing their journey they would eventually find everything they were looking for. The power cells, which were all guarded by geth. The alpha varren who got his head blown off after he tried to nibble on her leg. And the water valves were pretty easy to come by as well, though there was some strange guy they found near one who creeped them out. It was like he was going crazy which, to be fair, would make perfect sense when you're below ground surrounded by geth and varren without a weapon. But the fact that the colony was right above them made this a bit weird so Jane tried to talk to him. And by the end of their 'talk', she concluded that it was hopeless.

As they began to make their way back above ground to let everyone know of their successes, they came across more geth. Which was fine, but upon closer inspection it had seemed that they had gone the wrong way. Didn't matter to Jane though, she got to show off her sniping skills while helping out the colonists at the same time. And hey, along the way the duo had seemed to find a transmitter of some sort, so that was something.

After busting it up, they finally made it back topside. And once they returned to the heart of the colony they found that John and the others were still gone. While there was no doubt that they would've been fine, Jane felt it best to check up on them, if only to let them know they did their part.

"Hey, Tali, do me a favor and let the people we talked to know we handled their problems." she would ask of her friend. Once she agreed and went on her way, she started to walk over to Fai Dan's position while communicating with the Commander.

"Hey, John? We've done our part, the colony's gonna be up and running in no time. I take it you guys are on your way back here about now, right?"

"Not exactly."

"Huh? Care to explain?"

"We've been sidetracked a little bit. Found some ExoGeni people while we were over here, went inside of the company HQ and found craploads of geth here. Along with the daughter of one of the scientists, but that's not important. What is important is this thing that's called the Thorian. Has anyone in the colony mentioned it at all?"

"No, well, at least not to me or Tali. Why, what is this thing supposed to be?"

"Some kind of sentient mind-control thing. Be careful over there, apparently ExoGeni let this thing brainwash the colonists."

"What!?"

"Yep. We're nearing a geth dropship lodged into the ExoGeni place. Hopefully this will help stop the flow so we can take care of these things. I'll be in contact once we've made some progress. Shepard out."

So, the colonists had been brainwashed? By something that was only known as the Thorian, which meant that the brainwashing was probably against their wishes. Scratch that, she believed without a doubt that it was against their wishes, and whoever at ExoGeni had the balls to sanction that needed to get fired. Or fired at. Tali needed to be informed of this. No branwashed colonists were gonna pull a fast one on her, so she began patrolling the colony for any signs of her. It couldn't be that hard; she was the quarian with the purple outfit and the weird bending legs. And those hips...

Uh, nevermind those.

"Tali? Tali, where are you?" Jane called out. No response. Ugh, guess she'd have to get ahold of her helmet-to-helmet. "Tali, where the hell did you go?"

"Back to the Normandy. I had to use the bathroom."

"...But, there are bathrooms here in the colo...nevermind, I understand. I wouldn't use 'em either. You're coming back though, right?"

"Of course, Lieutenant. I wouldn't leave you out there with all of those strangers...you might shoot one of them."

"No I wouldn't."

"Do you really believe that?"

"...Yes."

"Lieutenant?"

"This conversation is over."

Well, at least she knew where Tali was. But now what was she to do? They had fixed the colony's problems, so now they were just waiting for the others to get back. They had handled any geth that were around the colony, so no one was in any real danger, right?

Wrong.

Jane began to make her way back to the Normandy, just to make sure that Tali wasn't lying about coming back out here, when she noticed something...odd, to say the least. The colonists that she had begun to walk by had started to cover their heads as if they were in pain, which alarmed her. Was this the work of the Thorian? It couldn't be anything else; no way were multiple people just gonna start hurting at the same time like that. But something else would happen afterward. They started to...move. Towards her, no less. Alright, no way were these people about to put their hands on her, so she slowly backed away from them and quickly turned to jog away. Only, it didn't seem like they liked that very much. As she jogged away from them, they ran after her.

And they ran fast.

"What the? Oh...this isn't good." she said, making a mad dash for the ship. And of course, the crazy colonists followed after her. She had to let Joker know what was going on before she made it onto the ship, otherwise they'd just get in and get themselves hurt. Or worse, killed!

"Joker! I've got a little situation down here!"

"How 'little' is this situation, Lieutenant?"

"Bunch of colonists are chasing me down, once I get on the ship you've got to lock it up. Understand?"

"Got it, but, why are they chasing you?"

"Nevermind that! I'm almost there, so get ready to save me!"

Nearing the Normandy she quickly glanced back to see that she had about at least ten paces on the next person following her, which meant multiple things. One, that she could probably make it to the ship without anyone getting hurt; and two, she needed to hit the gym more. The latter was irrelevant to the grand scheme, but if some brainwashed colonist is nearly keeping up with someone in the military, then something is wrong here. Of course, it could have just been the armor...

The side doors were already open, and as she dashed past them they would close as fast as they possibly could. Now in the ship, she began to catch her breath as she began to make her way towards the cockpit. Someone was in need of a little thanks for his part in her escape.

"Phew! Thanks for the save, I owe you one."

"I'll hold you to that, Lieutenant. Wait...do you hear that?"

"Not really, but you closed both doors, right?"

"Yeah, guess those colonists really want a piece of you. I'm gonna let the Commander know ahead of time so we can figure out what he wants us to do about them."

"Probably wants us to take 'em down 'gently' or something like that. But yeah, best to let him know what's going on so he and the others don't get caught off-guard." she said. This day was all full of weirdness. The colony in the prothean ruins, the brainwashing, John picking Garrus over her...okay, that last one was just an issue on her part, but it was so weird in her mind. While Joker radioed in to John to let him know of the current situation, Jane went to find Tali. Not to chew her out for not coming back or anything, but to let her know what happened. She'd probably be glad that her bladder saved her from going through what just happened. Heading down to the mess hall she would be stunned to find her quarian companion...eating.

"The hell?" she mumbled to herself. Wasn't Tali supposed to be...well...on her way? The hell was she doing, thinking that now was the time to be eating something. She walked over to her side and began to pat her on the shoulder, which got her attention rather quickly. And the reaction afterwards was just priceless.

"L-Lieutenant! I was just...um, making us some lunch! Yes, for when we...go back to watch out for the colonists!" A lie, obviously. But she sounded so flustered that Jane couldn't help but smile.

"Sure you were. Lucky for you, I didn't need your help after all."

"Huh? Did the Commander and the others return?"

"Nope, even better! The Thorian thingy brainwashed the colonists and had them try to kill me! In fact, I'm kind of glad you weren't there...you might've gotten caught."

"Hey!"

"Just kidding, Tali. But yeah, we're stuck in here until Team B gets back. I just hopes they don't hurt those colonists, it isn't their fault that this happened."

"Yeah...wait, why are they Team B? Doesn't the Commander automatically make it the 'A' Team?"

"Uh, I think I'm the one who decides these things. And I've decided that we're Team A, because 'A' stands for 'awesome', which we are. Now sit tight, we'll be back in action once John figures out how to handle those colonists."

And wait they did. It seemed like time passed by so slowly, as Jane seemed to have wandered all over the ship nearly a hundred of times before she had heard any word about John and the colonists. Was it safe to go back out? Were the colonists okay? These questions needed answers, and she didn't have any to give. But finally, after what seemed to her like an eternity, John radioed in with her.

"Jane?"

"Oh thank God, where the hell have you been!?"

"I've been handling the situation, why? Wait, you weren't worried about big brother, were you?"

"You can handle yourself just fine, I'm dying of boredom in here! Tell me I can regroup with the squad now...please?"

"Don't you even want to know what happened out here?"

"You can tell me on the way, here I come!" Her voice resonating with joy. Much more joy than necessary, but with her mind focused on this mission, being on the sidelines was killing her. She ran above deck and bolted to the side door before she realized she was forgetting something. Or, better yet, someone.

"Wait, hold on...Tali! Tali, we're on the move!"

She then bolted back below deck, grabbed Tali by the arm, and made her way back towards the colony. The entire time, Tali was completely baffled by what was going on. Not only that, but John had begun to explain what had happened while they were stuck on the Normandy.

"We handled the situation with the ExoGeni scientists. Got the daughter back to her mom, so everything worked out for them. And then there was Jeong...ExoGeni guy, douchebag, we might've been friends if he wasn't so damn ugly. Anyways, he was talking that the colony had to be purged, but I simply cracked a smile and 'persuaded' him otherwise. Being a Spectre has its perks, after all. Then we made our way back to the colony, but had to fight these...humanoid things. You might seem them lying about when you get here, they're gross and, thankfully, dead. And before you ask about the colonists, don't worry...they're all fine. If only because one of the Exogeni scientists was nice enough to make some gas grenades that knocked them out. Fai Dan also turned out to have more balls than I thought, and...oh, you're here."

"I've been here since the Jeong part. Now let's go, I'm ready to end this Thorian thing!"

"Not before I do. Now let's go everyone, time to see what this Thorian looks like."

They went down the stairs and into this Thorian's 'lair' of sorts. They only knew it was a plant thing, so with enough luck, they'd be able to end this and be on their way. But as they journeyed deeper into the place, they would soon realize that this certain plant was a bit...bigger, than they'd have like.

"So, this thing is a plant, right?" Jane asked. "So, we can just spray it with some plant killer and we can be on our way."

"I don't think it'll be that simple, Jane."

"O' brother of mine, you worry too much." she'd say. And then, they all looked up and noticed the large ass thing that was hanging from the walls. And then it was very clear that they had much to worry about.

"I...I may have spoken too soon."

They made their way up to the Thorian, curious as to what this thing really was and how it was able to brainwash the colonists they way it did. But once they had gotten close enough, something had begun to happen. The Thorian seemed...to be coughing up something. But what it had been coughing up was the weird and disgusting thing about it, since it was...well...

It coughed up a green asari. Did green asari even exist? Before she was able to internally ponder that thought, the asari had begun to speak.

"Invaders! Your every step is a transgression. A thousand feelers appraise you as meat, good only to dig or decompose." she would say. "I speak for the Old Growth, as I did with Saren. You are within and before the Thorian. It commands that you be in awe!"

Well...okay then. So this asari chick was the Thorian's translator. Which was fine, but the obvious question was why she was down here in the first place. John stepped up and demanded that the Thorian give him the Cipher, but it would soon be apparent that it had no intention of doing such a thing. How apparent would this be? It made the green asari lady attack them. Granted, they'd shoot her off of the ledge to her death, but it attacked them first.

And then came the creepy things again. Creepers? That could work. They seemed to come from a nearby door and, when opened, led to another part of the structure. It also showed them the Thorian's weakness: it was attached to the walls via its tentacles. If they were to shoot enough of them down, then it would have no choice but to fall and die. Or simply die, she wasn't picky. However, the amount of creepers surrounding the tentacles meant that it would take some time to get through them in order to get to their target.

Good thing there were enough of them to make up for that. Five of them against some unarmed zombies who liked to vomit? Piece of cake. Well, it was until they made it to the second floor and ran into the green asari lady again. Which, mind you, was confusing the hell out of her.

"Didn't we just kill her!?" Jane asked, frustrated that she was flinging her biotics all over the place. That, and she seemed to be getting the ass end of those attacks, which she deemed 'unfair'.

"Just kill her again!" Was John's response. And so they eventually did, which meant nothing once they continued climbing floors to encounter asari after asari. Only when they finally took out the last of the Thorian's tentacles did they finally cease. And the sight of the Thorian slowly but eventually falling to its' doom was...meh. Wasn't like it exploded into a great ball of fire or anything.

It seemed as if they were done with this place, seeing as how they saved the colonists and all, but there was one last surprise in store for them. Inside an ugly-looking sac thing, held an asari; however, this asari was different from the others in the sense that she was blue instead of green. Seeing as how all the other asari in this place weren't exactly friendly, everyone had their guns trained on her in case she tried anything funny.

After some questioning from John, the group would find out that the asari's name was Shiala, and that she had originally worked for Matriarch Benezia and Saren. She was also traded for information, which everyone agreed was what she deserved for being allied with Saren in the first place. She told of Saren's ship known as Sovereign, and how it had the ability to brainwash people over time...however weird and unbelievable that sounded. But the most important thing to come out of her mouth, was that she was able to give John the Cipher. After some weird phrasing and some talk about 'embracing eternity', they apparently spaced out for about a minute before they started moving again.

"You alright, John?" Jane asked.

"I'm fine, just...a little fuzzy. Lets just get back to the ship so we can get out of here." he responded and began to make his way back above ground. Until he stopped and turned around to eye Shiala. "But before I do, I have one question for you. What are you going to do once we leave?"

"I was planning on staying in order to help the colonists." Shiala said. "To atone for what happened between them and the Thorian, and any part I may have played in it."

"That works for me. Come on everyone, to the Normandy."

* * *

And minutes later, back on the Normandy, Jane would sit in the mess hall humming a tune to herself while deep in thought. Today's mission was a success...but there was something bugging her. It was trivial, sure, but she could not help but think about it. And to make matters worse, she wasn't the only one thinking about this either.

"43." Said a voice from behind her.

"Hmm?" She responded, slightly turning to instantly recognize the black and blue armor that belonged to the ship's residential turian. "Oh, it's just _you_. Gloating that you won a challenge that didn't exist?"

"Don't be upset, Lieutenant." He'd say, sitting down beside her. If he had a human mouth, Jane would swear that he was grinning from ear to ear. "I won't count this one against you. Next time we get a chance, though...you'd better be ready."

Smug bastard.

"Don't you have a Mako to work on, Vakarian? Surely you have better things to do than stare down at little ol' me?"

"I do, to both of those questions. Just giving you a heads up is all." He'd then stand up and make his way below deck, leaving Jane to herself.

"Giving me a heads up, who the hell does he think he is? One of these days I'll show that mutated bird who the real top gun is around here." She muttured to herself, returning to her humming shortly afterwards.

 _One of these days..._


End file.
